Ceremony: All Our Yesterdays for Today maps the living architecture of First Nations ceremonial practice in Australia — from rites of passage to Welcomes to Country — tracing how inherited stories, places, and memory bind generations across time and Country.
About This Book
The ninth volume in the First Knowledges series, this book locates ceremony not as cultural artifact but as continuous, intergenerational practice. Georgia Curran and Wesley Enoch draw on personal experience — from the Quandamooka waterways to Warlpiri ceremonies in the Tanami desert — alongside stories shared by Elders, to illuminate how First Nations Australians have sustained cultural knowledge through ceremony across millennia. The authors are candid about the boundaries of what can be told: many ceremonies are sacred and restricted, known only to the initiated. What this book does illuminate is the breadth and significance of ceremony as a framework for connecting Country, community, and identity — past and present.
Key Features
- 228 pages of personal narrative, community-centred storytelling, and cultural analysis of First Nations ceremonial practice
- Authors: Georgia Curran and Wesley Enoch
- Case studies include ceremonies from Quandamooka waterways, Warlpiri community gatherings in the Tanami desert, and Opening ceremonies for national events
- Published by Thames & Hudson Australia
What You'll Discover
- How ceremony functions as a living, intergenerational system that connects First Nations Australians to Country, family, and history — not as a relic but as ongoing cultural practice
- The diversity of ceremonial forms across different Nations and landscapes, from smoking ceremonies and rites of passage to community-centred gatherings and national Welcome to Country protocols
- The ethical boundaries around ceremonial knowledge — why certain ceremonies remain restricted, and what that restraint itself reveals about First Nations cultural sovereignty
- How the First Knowledges framework positions Indigenous knowledge systems as vital, applicable, and distinct from — yet in dialogue with — contemporary ways of understanding the world
About the Author
Georgia Curran and Wesley Enoch bring together personal, community, and Elder-shared knowledge to author this volume. Wesley Enoch has experience performing at Opening ceremonies for major national events. Further biographical details are available upon request.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 228
- Dimensions: 196 x 131 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781760764074
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers engaged with First Nations cultural practice, students of Indigenous studies, cultural practitioners, and readers seeking a grounded understanding of ceremony as living knowledge system in Australia.